The United States has approved a potential Foreign Military Sale to Ireland for FGM-148 Javelin missiles and Lightweight Command Launch Units, valued at an estimated $46 million.
According to the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the sale covers thirty-six Lightweight Command Launch Units (LwCLUs) to be added to a previously implemented agreement, which originally included forty-four FGM-148 Javelin missiles.
The original case, valued at $8.7 million, did not require congressional notification at the time. The combined package now includes forty-four missiles and thirty-six launch units.
In addition to the missiles and launchers, the sale will include missile containers, Enhanced Producibility Basic Skills Trainers (EPBST), training, technical assistance, and other elements of logistics and programme support.
The U.S. State Department said the proposed sale “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security and capabilities of Ireland to support its participation in peacekeeping missions with the United Nations and NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme.”
It added that the deal would “enhance Ireland’s capability to build its long-term defence capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity to meet its national defence requirements.” The DSCA noted that Ireland is expected to absorb the equipment with no difficulty.
The principal contractors for the sale are the Javelin Joint Venture between Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida, and RTX Corporation in Tucson, Arizona. The U.S. Government stated that no offset agreements have been proposed at this stage, but any such arrangements would be negotiated directly between Ireland and the contractors.
The DSCA confirmed that “implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Ireland,” and that “there will be no adverse impact on U.S. defence readiness as a result of this proposed sale.”
The $46 million figure represents the highest estimated cost, and the final value will depend on requirements and contractual agreements.
Good to see Ireland finally starting to take defence somewhat seriously. I still can’t get over the figures in some of these contracts. Javelin missiles reportedly cost around $250k, with the launch units costing the same again. But the per combined missile / launch unit this contract is over $1m per unit.
I note that it includes training, logistics and technical support; but the figures seem wildly disproportionate. I’m guessing these are the high mark-up areas that defence companies are using to stack their profits. I wonder how these support costs scale relative to the number of units purchased – probably varies by system. But it does beg the question as to whether fewer systems with more units per system, could help increase defence budget efficiency.
NLAW obviously doesn’t have quite the same capabilities as Javelin, and I’m glad that the UK has both, but it seems to be a far more cost effective system overall. I’m surprised it hasn’t seen more orders by budget conscious militaries, especially given it’s lauded performance in Ukraine.
You do realise that this order is just a replenishment and upgrade order for the DF, the Javelin has been in service for years at this point given we were one of the first users of it.
I actually wasn’t aware of that, but appreciate that it probably wouldn’t have taken me long to google. That doesn’t take away from the main thrust of my comment thought, in fact it might add to it, that the figures being quoted in these contracts are clearly way in excess of the aggregate unit costs.
Well that and Irish dod is usually pretty bad at getting competitive contracts or doing them quickly, hence why the LoA2 purchases are going to be G2G.
Why do Ireland need Javelin anti-tank missiles? Are they planning to invade Ulster or are they afraid we might invade them? Surely they would be better off prioritising assets that can police their area of economic interest.
The DF has always had ATGM systems, this is nothing new just a replacement for end of life equipment. They are deployed on the UN missions
Seems a bit illogical: any army with tanks modern enough to require a Javelin are going to be too much of a political headache to shoot back at anyway. As the Irish found out in Lebanon last year.
Hasn’t stopped the DF and IDF and its surrogates trading fire in the past, though that was with the Panards in service. Like I said this is nothing new in service just restocking, interesting timing though if the Jaguar order happens.
Javelin is very versatile, it can do anti ship in littorals and we often used it to take out bunkers or even machine gun positions in Afghanistan.
It was a really expensive way to do this but often cheaper than getting a Tonka to fly across the country to drop a Paveway.
And a lot faster than calling up air support….with the risk that the hostiles may have Foxtrot Oscar’d by the time Harrier or Tonka put in an appearance.
If you are in a life or death fight – living is more important than the cost of expended munitions in the moment. If you are dead you won’t be able to put the Javelin back into stores….
But as a neutral country, their only confrontational activity is as a UN peacekeeping force, and they typically retreat in the face of hostility.
No the DF doesn’t and has exchanged fire more than once on deployments.
Not true at all.
Ireland would be better off investing in naval or air power!
I wouldn’t trust the yanks enough to buy anything at all from them
Well they are already in service so it’s not a huge surprise, on the other hand, the US might be out of the running for the Radar buy despite earlier reports, which is a hell of a lot more than just this replenishment buy.
Parts of the Javelin missile are made in Ireland. Used to work in an office next door to the Raytheon factory. They would go nuts and call the police if we ever parked in their car park.
Well with some of our “left” nutters would you blame them?
Oh, 100%, it’s not widely publicised what is made there. Otherwise, there would probably be some idiots trying to break in and regular protests outside.
We’ve got them ‘up north’ too. Even our first minister refused to welcome the huge NLAW order for the Belfast factory a while back.
I worked in London for a while and on a different floor of our building was an MBDA office. Got the occasional protest outside and eggs hurled at people entering the building. I managed to escape the yolk.
Ah that’s just the Shinners letting their Tankie side out, with a side helping of their “won’t someone think of neutrality” pearl clutching they are doing down South.
For future internal use!!
Well yeah, they are used in training in the Glen.
Guess it will take years until they arrive, as there is probably ila long queue… they will have plenty of time to figure out what to do with them, anyway now countries looking to buy American stuff to balance their trade with the US to improve the new tariffs
Again, you do get that this is just a replenishment order, the Javelin has been in Irish service for over 20 years at this stage, there’s no “figuring out what to do with them”. As for buying American for trade balances, nothing at all to do with that, just that they are already in stock for the DF. Also this isn’t even a measurable difference in the trade statistics.
The Irish government should be prioritising their navy and in particular their anti submarine capabilities. Their seas, and sebed infrastructure, are currently almost completely open to Russian subs and ships.
Their second priority should be a credible air defence, including military radars and a small quantity of fighter jets.
As an island nation, the army should be their lowest priority.
This is a simple replenishment of weapon stocks, what about it is so troubling for some of the posters here? When we buy new 120mm mortar rounds are you going to complain as well?
The Army is the senior service of the military, with the Navy being the junior service, and the Javelin is the main “heavy” weapon on UN deployments. When the Army vehicle fleet replacement happens are you going to be complaining about that as well?
The timetable for procurements is well laid out already, but please feel free to ignore that.
Why!!!!
Ireland has always let everyone else fight for their freedom!
Low energy trolling but if it makes you happy.
Honest question to all those that seem to have an issue with this, why?
It’s a normal replenishment, no different than the yearly buys of small arms munitions to 76/105/120mm rounds that the Irish dod source whenever its needed, so what exactly is the negative issue with this?
Mark, I think many readers may not have known that Ireland has had ATk weapons for some time – perhaps it wasn’t widely publicised before. I can understand puzzlement that Ireland feel they need a significant anti-tank capability. I served on UN duties, albeit in Cyprus, and we did not have anti-tank weapons.
Like I said, it’s not a new capability, we had Milan’s in service for 20 years before they were replaced by the Javelins, I suppose if the mortars and 105s get replaced with new vehicle mounted systems there might be the same type of complaints here.
As for UN taskings, as I’m sure you know every mission is different with different ROEs, for both UNFIL and UNDOF before it the DF are tasked with force protection and reaction, so for example engaged ISIS and others during the time of UNDOF.
Course if George wanted actual news on Irish Defence, the Cabinet signed off today on formal talks with the 4 nations looking to provide the new radar systems.
I was late to the party on these postings Mark.
Good job pointing out this is just a ‘grocery order’ for kit Ireland already has.
I’m still trying to figure out why it sparked such a response tbh?
In my opinion, the freedom loving world has a moral obligation to abstain from US weaponry. If this means taking a hit in effectiveness, so be it. Sales like this just re-affirm to the US that everything is okay; that their actions on international affairs are okay.
This sale represents the “easy option”. I will be as critical to the UK moving forward.
So will you argue that the U.K. purchases of Trident, AWACs and F35s should be cancelled?